Amidst some confusion over the draft process for the Centre Parks & Recreation Basketball League – one of the coaches stopped by the WEIS Radio studios on Thursday to address the issue.

B.J. Major:

After speaking with Major – we contacted Centre City Council member Marc Johnson to get his side of the story:

Johnson has provided WEIS Radio with a lengthy detailed statement in response to Major’s claims – which has been printed below.

In that letter Johnson addresses statements reportedly posted on Facebook in regard to the situation.

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I wanted to send out a response on my behalf for the comments that BJ Majors has made.

It’s amazing how some people post half truths and this of course leads to misconception of what is really going on. I would have been more than happy to reply to BJ’s post, but for some reason I am blocked from viewing his post and could not reply to his accusations.

Concerning the City of Centre Basketball league, I wanted everybody to know the real truth. In 2013 Dwayne Amos and I set up the City Basketball league from scratch to try and provide a program for those kids that cannot travel or afford to play in a travel league. We contacted as many coaches, schools and parents as possible including BJ.

BJ choose to not support our basketball league at the time because he did not want his girls to play in a co-ed league of 8U with boys.

After all the coaches and parents were contacted we decided that we had enough kids that wanted to participate in the City League were skills and sportsmanship would be the main focus.

All of the coaches meet and we decided to not have a draft and pick the teams according to their skill level to make the league as equal as possible for the kids of Centre. In the 8u league we had around 13 girls that had signed up and about 50 boys. The coaches voted to put the majority of the girls on one team.

I agreed to take the girl team understanding the odds of winning were very slim and knew that we would struggle each game but it would allow the boys to compete at a higher level which would help make the league be more successful since this was the first year off the ground.

I lost every game with my girl team but who cares these girls had a blast they left every game thinking that they had won. It was a huge success for the first year and everybody including coaches and parents that participated in the league thought it was a great year.

Now Fast forward to 2014. Parents and Coaches from Spring Garden,Cedar Bluff were calling to see when the league would start again this year. Even Oxford yes Oxford wanted to play in our league this year because of how successful it was last year.

I explained this to the Park and Rec board about being on top of the 2014 season would mean starting sign ups October the 1st, because the other cities would be having their sign ups during this time frame and that we could not wait to the last minute or teams would think that our league was not going to happen. I was overruled and the sign ups would be set at a later time.

Towns and other Cities became nervous and started to question if we were going to have a league. Spring Garden called me and so did Oxford to inform me that they had made the decision to travel to Gadsden to play since Gadsden’s signups were coming to a close the next couple of weeks. I informed the Park and Rec board of the other cities decisions and that the league would be hurt by theses decision. I don’t blame anybody for looking out for

their kids best interest to make sure they have a league to play in.

At this point I was not sure that we would have enough for the league to make, so I called up my girl team from last year that lost every game and explained that I would also try and get some games lined up for us to play in outside of the league so we could at least be able to play this year if the league did not make. I contacted some 8u girl teams in FT. Payne and they said that they had a few openings that I had to make a decision on to be able to play.

I contacted the parents of the girl team from last year and we all committed to play since we were under a time line and we started practicing immediately to get ready to go to play in FT. Payne. The next week our Park Director decided to have signups Nov 3rd through 7th. We all wanted to play in Centre so we signed up to play, because that was the whole purpose that we formed the league to begin with.

The draft night roles around last night and I informed everybody that I had already put a team together of the same girls from last year that lost every game and that I needed to keep them together since I had already committed to some games in FT. Payne not knowing if the league would happen in Centre this year. I went on to explain that I would bow out of the Centre league and just play in FT. Payne this year.

The coaches wanted us to stay in the league because they knew it is not about wining for me. I just wanted to make sure that they had a place to play this year even if we lose every game again this year. I am sorry that BJ feels like he is not being treated fairly.

At this age group it’s not about winning it is about having fun and growing our kid’s minds. BJ makes it sound like I stacked a team for the Centre League and that it is unfair.

8U Girls playing against 8U boys, get real we will be lucky to win a game again this year. BJ drafted first before any of the other coaches to make sure he could pick the best 3 to win.

No Gossip just truth.

~Marc Johnson

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We have also re-posted our story from November 10th – outlining the specifics of the draft process.

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ORIGINALLY POSTED ON THE WEIS RADIO WEBSITE ON NOVEMBER 10th, 2014

The Centre Parks & Recreations Committee met on Monday afternoon to discuss the progress of sign-ups for the City’s Basketball League.

Parks and Recreation Director Charles Glazner said that sign-ups had been extended through Wednesday of this week in order to allow those who did not make the original deadline an opportunity to do so.

Also during that meeting it was discussed that the teams would be selected though a draft process which will work as follows –

Assignments –

• Coaches’ Child/Children will automatically be placed on the coach’s team as their last draft pick in the appropriate age group
• A coach who does not have a child may designate one player from the younger group of players as a “courtesy selection” (not a regular draft pick)
• All other players will be in the regular draft order of selection

Order of Selection –

• This will be drawn from a hat, I.E “1^st pick”, “2^nd pick”, etc
• The older players will be drafted first throughout complete rounds, If two or three players are remaining in the older age group after complete rounds selection is complete, these may be drafted when desired with the younger group

NOTE: This may have to be modified if there are more than two age groups involved

•  Draft will follow a serpentine pattern, I.E. a six team league would draft –

 Team A    1          12        13        24        25

Team B    2          11         14        23        26

Team C    3          10        15        22        etc.

Team D    4          9          16        21

Team E    5          8          17        20

Team F    6          7          18        19

Other Frozen Players –

• Twins or Children of the same household who will play in the same league must be picked in order one after the other by the same team – or first pick in their age group if they are different age.

The committee also agreed to use the same officiating crew as previous years paying and will pay three officials $60 per game.

Anyone that has any questions may contact Centre Parks & Rec Director Charles Glazner by calling 256-523-8509.

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We understand B.J. Major has been added to the agenda for Monday’s meeting of the Centre City Council, which is set for 4:00pm at Centre City Hall. That meeting is open to the public.

We’ll be in attendance at that meeting and will have more on this story as it develops.